3am
by Kilrez
Summary: Plotting, planning, possibly some scheming. JMP. Finished.
1. A question

3am

**Chapter One**

Disclaimer: Ahahahahahahahah! Yes, believe it. I'm actually crazy enough to write out a maniacal laugh. With five exclamation marks. Thus proving that I'm not guilty, by means of slightly more than temporary insanity, so you can't sue me for infringement.

* * *

'What?' 

'Good evening Miss Parker-' Jarod was about to continue, but got cut off.

'-let me see. Since it's three am, and you didn't start with an abstract statement, I believe it _may_ just be possible to guess the general gist of what you're about to say.'

'Go on' he conceded in amusement.

'Hang on, it's coming to me- I should leave the Centre. Give it up PEZ-head. For starters, it's the middle of the night, and any advice you give me I will contradict as a matter of principle. And secondly, you know there's only one way that it's going to happen.'

'If you still believe that then your father has you more brainwashed than I'd thought. It would be so easy if you wanted to. You can do anything you put your mind to Miss Parker. You know that.'

'Except for putting you back in your cage.'

'Maybe you haven't put your mind to it then.'

'Jarod, it's the middle of the night and I'm really not in the mood for this. Goodnight.'

'Goodnight' he whispered to the dial tone, the fact that she had hung up on him attesting to the fact that the call had been solely for his comfort. He fell asleep with the phone cradled to his chest.

**oo00OO00oo**

Jarod lounged against the alley wall, waiting for her. Not long now… and there it was, right on time. The distinct sound of someone running in high heels. There was only one set of footsteps; he had made sure of that.

'Hello Miss Parker' he greeted her as she skidded into the alley and came to a halt with her gun trained rigidly on him. 'Jarod' she inclined her head slightly, a faint smile on her lips. Jarod's instincts gave a warning stab and he became more wary.

'And to what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?' she asked him.

'Can't you just assume that you caught me here of your own brilliance?'

'No. But since you are here… I have a proposition.'

Jarod's eyes narrowed. 'Go on'

'As you told me to, I put my mind to methods of leaving the Centre-'

'I'm shocked Miss Parker. I believe this may actually be the first time you have ever taken my advice.'

'Do you want to hear this or not?' Jarod nodded. 'There is one way,' she continued, 'but it will cost you.'

Jarod raised an eyebrow, indicating for her to continue, but then they both heard the sounds of pursuit, rapidly coming closer. 'We will continue this later Miss Parker' he told her. He reached inside his jacket, more serious now. Parker tightened her finger on the trigger, then relaxed when he withdrew an ancient yellowed envelope. He held it out to her.

Parker eyed him warily for a few moments then edged forward, keeping the gun trained on him. She snatched it out of his grip then backed away again, not glancing down at the envelope until she was out of range of any manoeuvres he might make. The words 'to my darling daughter' were etched in faded ink on the front. Her stomach curled into a little ball and her breathing tightened as she looked at those words. It was a moment before she remembered that she was meant to be capturing Jarod, but by the time she looked up it was too late. He was gone.

She glared at the sky in frustration then turned to exit the alley.

**oo00OO00oo**

'What?'

'What did it say?'

'Like you don't know'

'I would not read a letter that your mother wrote to you.'

There was a moment of silence down the phone line. 'It was nothing significant' Parker said finally. 'I hope it brought her closer to you' said Jarod sincerely.

Parker took a deep breath and sighed. 'About our conversation earlier-'

'Your plan for leaving the Centre.'

'How do you know this phone's not bugged?' she warned him sharply.

'I know' Jarod reassured her. Parker felt a flare of annoyance. He was practically telling her that he had been in her house. 'Now now Miss Parker.' He smiled. He knew exactly how to push her buttons and still enjoyed doing it. She practically growled down the phone.

'How far would you go to get me out of the Centre Jarod?' she asked suddenly, her tone changed completely. The question took Jarod off stride.

'I would do anything.'

'Well that's good. All I need you to do is go back to the Centre for me'

'What!'

'You said anything'

'Allow me to refine that term-'

'If you went in with a pre set up plan to get out again… I would have met my father's agreement and once I was gone-'

'It would only be Lyle, Sydney and Broots chasing me, which makes all the difference.'

'Oh come one Jarod. You pop in and out of the Centre on practically a weekly basis. All you have to do is sim where they'll keep you and put a chock in the door so you can pop out once I'm free.'

'How do you know that I 'pop' in and out of there at all?'

'Oh, don't be coy. A number of of those security cameras are closed loop and there's no other way you could know some of the things you do.'

Despite himself, Jarod smiled. He had a tendency to underestimate his beautiful huntress and now, after his initial shock reaction, he could see that her plan was actually quite feasible, if not somewhat life threatening.

'I'll call you' he told her, then hung up. He needed to think about it. Parker glared at the phone in her hand. She hated it when he hung up on her.

**oo00OO00oo**

Jarod did think about it. He simmed it and he struggled with it and realised that it would be easy to do. There was one variable though. One thing that he couldn't control, didn't know, as always. It all came down to whether or not he trusted Parker enough to be really telling the truth. He stewed over it for days. If she changed her mind for so much as an instant, mentioned one word to her father, they were both toast.

'God help me' he mumbled one night as he sat staring at the screen of his lap top. He had known from the instant she had said it that he would do it. He had just been putting off the inevitable time when he would run to her call.

**oo00OO00oo**

'What?'

'Give me three days.'

'Jarod, wait!' she said in an attempt to stop the inevitable click, but she was too slow. The dial tone beeped quietly in her ear. Sighing in frustration Parker put the phone down. She had wanted to talk to him, be reassured by his complete lack of concern about the future. Jarod always had that effect on her. It was one of the most alluring things about him. His bright and innocent smile declared to the world that everything was fine, that it would all be OK. And she wanted that, because Miss Parker hated to admit it, but she was scared out of her mind about what was to come. She had been, in one way or another, controlled by the Centre all her life. And now…

Sighing she laid back against the pillows, closing her eyes to the dark bedroom. Her mind abruptly gifted her with an image of Jarod standing tall and dignified in a dark cell in the bowels of the Centre. Parker's stomach twisted into a tight little knot. It would not be an easy three days.

* * *

TBC... 


	2. An answer

Dealings with Angels

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: Saya tidak membuat 'the Pretender,' dan juga tidak mempunyai banyak uang. What's that you say? In english? Don't be fussy.

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fanny: your simple review was very heartening, thankyou. 

sg1niner: the words 'the good stuff' had me bouncing off the wall for an hour. If you can do that to a writer, than you can be a masterwriter. Thankyou for your praise about that, and about my JMP spin. I hope this doesn't dissapoint.

nyt: In answer to your questiion; 'not really.' They both know, deep down, exactly their feelings for each other. The fun part is making them admit it. It's assumed that she knows he'll be there for her because... well, because he will.

mariel4000: Yey indeed.

Gemini-M: thankyou for your praise, and for your eternal support. I'm never sure whether I've got these diffucult characters right, and your support is comforting.

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Jarod pounded down the street, adrenaline pumping, the sounds of pursuit behind him making him itch to accelerate. He firmly restrained himself. This time they had to catch him. They had to, for Parker. So he didn't duck through a pre-planned maze of alleys and backstreets that would be guaranteed to lose them. He didn't use the extra burst of speed that he knew he had in him. There would be no last minute saves this time. He knew that. But it scared him so badly, the thought of going back to that dark place. So he thought of Parker, and managed to keep his running feet at a slower pace, remembered to take the turn into the dead end alley, remembered to try all the doors, which he had personally pre-locked before he turned to face his captors. 

It was just Sam, Broots, Sydney and Parker who blocked the mouth of the alley. Jarod's heart was racing, and not just from the run. Both Parker and Sam had guns trained on him. He slowly raised his hands. Not a word was said.

Parker covered Sam while he edged forward to handcuff Jarod. For the look of the thing Jarod made an attempt to snatch Sam's gun, but the beefy sweeper put an elbow in his stomach then smacked him over the head with the butt of the pistol. Slightly winded Jarod straightened and allowed himself to be handcuffed. 'Guess you're coming home then lab rat' gloated Parker. Only Jarod heard the part of her voice that held nervousness. He didn't reply, just hung his head and allowed himself to be pushed forward by Sam.

The procession walked out onto the street, Broots leading the way to the car, Jarod flanked by Parker and Sydney, Sam walking behind with his gun discreetly trained on the pretender. 'Please Sydney' whispered Jarod, going through all the motions. 'Shut up PEZ head' ordered Parker sharply. Sydney gave him a remorse filled look. Jarod felt a stab of guilt. They had not let the old scientist in on their plan out of necessity. Sydney would suffer much with worry for his protégé before it was completed.

Jarod decided not to put up a fight as Sam ushered him into the black Centre car, mostly because his head was still hurting from the last time. The handcuffs were reattached to the car door then Sam shut it and went to get in the driver's seat. Parker sat in the passenger seat in the front. Thankfully Sydney and Broots took a different car.

It seemed all too short a time before they were back in Delaware, back in the building that Jarod hated more than all others. From then on however, time dragged. Dark rooms, dark corridors, pain, sudden bright lights, more darkness… His only comfort was that Miss Parker was nowhere in sight, but he needed to give her a few days head start. So he endured. Cold, concrete, bad food, conformity, pain, fear, grey…

**oo00OO00oo**

Jarod stumbled into the room, nearly falling with the force with which he had been shoved. Leaning against the cinder-block wall, gasping, he spat out a mixture of blood and small chips of tooth. 'I am so blowing this joint' he muttered. He estimated that enough time had passed, although after having been beaten into unconsciousness the second time, he had lost count slightly.

When he had been dumped in here, the guard sweeper had been away getting coffee- the slow release sedatives Jarod had fed him several days before were presumably the reason. His escort sweepers, as was typical of a proper bureaucracy, worked under a different superior. Therefore it was not up to them to make sure the cell stayed guarded. The light flickered slightly and the security cameras one by one let out little hisses of system failure as the power surges overcame them. It was time for the pretender to spring into action.

Thankfully, he had fallen against the wall he needed. Running his fingers up and down the brickwork, he found one brick around which all the mortar had been removed. Wrestling it out of the wall, a small secret alcove was revealed. Inside; a cleaner's jumpsuit. Not the scary, hiding bodies type of cleaner- the type of cleaners whose presence anywhere in a building was never questioned, because you don't question the person who is emptying your rubbish bin. Slowly he pulled the clothes on, then with great difficulty, he stuffed the torn and bloody jeans- the only item of clothing he had left- back in the hole. With even greater difficulty, he managed to get the brick back into the wall.

Grunting with pain and moving very carefully, he wavered over to the security panel on the inside of his cell door. Hissing a bit as he punched in the code- had to be at least two broken fingers there- Jarod prayed that his system hack had not set off a security alert that would have resulted in all the codes being changed. But no, there was the beep and click of a correct code. Now came the hard bit. Trying to suppress his grimace, the pretender stood up straight, put a look of subservient, detached purpose on his face, opened the door and shuffled out into the corridor, keeping his eyes on his feet as appropriate to someone whose position ranked somewhere below the prisoners of the Centre.

He headed straight for the cleaner's lift up to ground level, and greeted the daylight through the windows with immense relief. Then it was a simple matter of negotiating the plain corridors out to one of the back entrances. There was a brief pause as one of his supposed co-workers who was outside having a smoke in his break struck up a platitude-filled conversation. Trying not to appear too eager to leave, Jarod waited until the other man's break ended, then made a beeline to the car park. He picked a car at random and headed straight for it without pausing, in orderto maintain the illusion that it was his car. Normally the pretender had some scruples against stealing, but frankly he was in too much pain to care.

The next couple of days were a mix of confusing his trail as much as possible and trying to recuperate. He checked into a doctor to get his broken wrist and fingers put in plaster and spent a lot of time sleeping. In about a week his injuries were fading, and were nothing more than an annoyance. He stepped up the trail confusing into high gear. For some obscure reason, Jarod wanted nothing Centre related near him for a long time. Well… actually, there was one thing.

**oo00OO00oo**

'What?'

'Enjoying freedom?'

'It has it's perks. You?'

'I have spent more enjoyable weeks than the past one.'

'Life can't all go your way.'

'True enough. I'll let you know how the new pursuit team compares.' Jarod went to go hang up, but was stopped by an abrupt 'wait!'

'Yes Miss Parker?' he asked

'Does this mean the three am phone calls can stop?'

The only reply she got was an evil chuckle and a click as he hung up.

The End.


End file.
